Glossary Term – Person

Benjamin Franklin (1705–1790) was one of America’s first renaissance men—his career included work as a statesman, scientist, writer, printer, and diplomat. Born in Boston, Franklin eventually settled in Philadelphia. He published Poor Richard’s Almanack for twenty-five years and later wrote an autobiography that is still in print. His inventions, such as the bifocal lens and the Franklin stove, as well as his investigations into the properties of lightning, earned him international recognition. Widely popular in...

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In Jean Strouse’s Morgan: American Financier, J. P. Morgan emerges as a man who was critical in reorganizing bankrupt railroads, attracting gold and investment to the United States, and building a financial empire, but who, at his death in 1913, was one of the most vilified men of the Gilded Age.